Country Album Sales Up 5.6 Percent for First Half of 2012

Country album sales for the first half of 2012 increased by approximately 1 million units over those for the same period last year, according to a survey from Nielsen SoundScan, the company that tracks actual music sales in the U.S.

Country’s jump was from 18.4 million to 19.4 million copies, a 5.6 percent rise, higher than that of any other genre.

Overall album sales dipped from 221.3 million for this same period last year to 220.3 million this year. But overall music sales — which include albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks — jumped from 820.5 million to 853.2 million.

The period covered by this survey was from Jan. 2 to July 1, 2012.

Three country albums were in the Top 10 of sales among all monitored musical genres. They were Lionel Richie‘s Tuskegee, an album that features Richie dueting with various country artists, Carrie Underwood‘s Blown Away and Luke Bryan‘s Tailgates & Tanlines.

Tuskegee sold 912,000 units to rank at No. 2, Blown Away moved 602,000 to seize the No. 6 spot, while Tailgates & Tanlines seized the No. 7 niche on sales of 575,000.

Tuskegee also captured the No. 8 spot in the number of digital albums sold: 214,000. No other country albums made the Top 10 in this category.

Digital sales of country tracks escalated from 73.6 million to 83.5 million.

No country singles made the Top 10 list of songs broadcast over radio or streamed during this period, Nielsen BDS reports.

Other musical genres that enjoyed increased album sales were jazz (up from 3.5 million to 3.6 million), metal (15.5 million to 16 million) and rock (49.5 million to 49.6 million).

Genres that suffered declines in sales were alternative (26.7 million to 25.1 million), Christian/gospel (10.7 million to 10.6 million), classical (3.7 million to 3 million), electronic/dance (5.2 million to 4.8 million), Latin (6.2 million to 5 million), rhythm & blues (26.6 million to 24.5 million) and rap (12.2 million to 11.4 million).